Recommended Books

A Guide for Planners, Urban Designers, Municipalities, and Developers

Form-Based Codes is the only comprehensive guide to Form-Based Codes for urban designers, architects, planners, developers and city agencies. Generously illustrated at 332 pages, it includes forewords by two leading lights of the new urbanist movement and accomplished form-based coders…more

For Planners, Developers and Architects

Written by pioneering attorneys in the emerging fields of urbanism and green building, A Legal Guide to Urban and Sustainable Development for Planners, Developers and Architects offers you practical solutions for legal issues you may face in planning, zoning, developing, and…more

How Regulations Affect Urban Form

Island Press, 2011By Emily Talen, Ph.D

City Rules offers a challenge to students and professionals in urban planning, design, and policy to change the rules of city-building, using regulations to reinvigorate, rather than stifle, our communities. Emily Talen demonstrates that regulations are a primary detriment to…more

Building on prior TOD planning in Florida, this guidebook goes beyond defining TOD and best practices to focus on how it can be achieved. Florida specific place types, model zoning code language, and implementation strategies provide the tools communities require…more

The Michigan Guidebook to Liveability

CNU Michigan, 2010

A handy “how-to” guidebook by the Michigan Chapter of the Congress of the New Urbanism, with 144 pages setting out the process of drafting a code in seven steps. This guidebook is intended primarily for small communities with limited or…more

Created by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) to facilitate the implementation of the GO TO 2040 Comprehensive Regional Plan. One of the central goals of the plan is to make the Chicago region a better place to live,…more

Rebuilding America One Neighborhood, One City at a Time

University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014By Manny Diaz

As Mayor, Manny Diaz led the largest successful citywide coding effort in the country. Part memoir, part political primer, Miami Transformed offers a straightforward look at his holistic and pragmatic leadership. The story of Manny Diaz’s efforts to renew Miami will…more

Principles of Urban Retail Planning and Development John Wiley & Sons, 2012 By Robert J. Gibbs Principles of Urban Retail Planning & Development, written by FBCI board and education committee member Robert Gibbs, ASLA reflects his 30 years of experience in…more

Toward an Architecture of Community

McGraw-HillBy Peter Katz

FBCI founding board member Peter Katz is author of this seminal book on the emergence and meaning of New Urbanism. The town planning movement that motivated the development of form-based codes is deftly described in this book.

Urban codes have a profound influence on urban form, affecting the design and placement of buildings, streets and public spaces. Historically, their use has helped create some of our best-loved urban environments, while recent advances in coding have been a…more